Produce, such as potatoes, onions, brussels sprouts, pears, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, plums and the like, are sold by weight in cardboard cartons, burlap sacks or bags of different size and material. When pliant, flexible bags are filled, the bags are held open by bag holder means which may be connected to a bag holder conveyor means for intermittently positioning a bag holder with its open bag at a filling station. A well-known system for filling bags includes use of two filling stations, the first filling station providing rapid filling of the bag up to about 95% of the selected weight and the second filling station providing a dribble feed for accurately filling the remaining 5% of the selected weight. Such two-stage filling and weighing machines have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,746,707, 3,073,399, and 3,416,620. The latter U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,620, issued to one of the coinventors herein, describes such a machine utilizing a plurality of bag holders and a conveyor means having spaced connections to each bag holder along a diameter of the bag holder which lies in the direction of travel of the conveyor means.
IN THE FILLING AND WEIGHING OF BAGS WITH SUCH PRODUCE, IT IS DESIRABLE THAT CERTAIN MODIFICATIONS IN A MACHINE BE READILY MADE TO MOST EFFICIENTLY FILL AND WEIGH BAGS WITH A PARTICULAR PRODUCE. It is also desirable that spillage of such produce during filling be reduced to a minimum and preferably eliminated because such spillage may lodge in other parts of the machine and may result in treacherous footing for an operator. It is also desirable that space beneath the bag conveying portion of the machine be free from obstructions so that it may be readily cleaned when necessary and so that the insertion of bags on the holders and the weighing of such bags may be accomplished without interference from machine structure. It is also desirable that the weighing scale devices be readily available for adjustment and replacement in the event the filling of the bags is to be changed from a weight system to a volumetric system. Also, different produce may require different systems for the most efficient feeding of such produce to the bag holders and bags carried thereby.
Such bag filling and weighing machines are required to be rapidly operated in order to effectively and efficiently bag a great number of sacks in a limited period of time. In such prior proposed mechanized systems the number of bags filled and ready for shipment per hour depends upon the completion of all of the separate bagging operations. Obviously, the total number of bags filled per hour and ready for shipment will be limited to that part of the machine or system which operates the slowest. In general, such systems include the steps of sizing the produce, conveying the sized produce to a feeding device for feeding the produce in bulk and in discrete separate individual pieces of produce, filling a bag to a selected weight, transporting the filled bag to a bag closing means such as a sewing head to stitch the top part of the bag closed, and handling and storing the filled, closed bag.